WHITE PAPER: ILM-AWARE BACKUP SOLUTIONS TO REDUCE STORAGE COSTS AND PREVENT DATA RETENTION LAW INFRINGEMENTS

Asigra today announced the availability of a White Paper it has commissioned to Data Mobility Group, on the subject of backup lifecycle management (BLM) and the need to manage, prioritize and migrate backup data to different storage systems throughout its life, in order to control costs and ensure compliance with the latest data retention laws.

The paper, entitled “Managing the Life Cycles of Backups”, delves into the Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) premise that not all data should be treated equally and explains why backup data should not be treated as the end of the line for the life of data. Instead, backup data should be tiered and differentiated into ‘critical’ and ’important’, just like ILM solutions, and it should be integrated with a company’s ILM strategy to ensure that archived data isn’t repeatedly backed up, which would increase backup and storage costs.

Integrating backup data with an ILM solution is also important to ensure a company is compliant with the latest data retention laws, which have both data retention and deletion requirements. Isolated archive software that is not integrated with backup software can delete the data stored in its archive, but doesn’t delete the backup copies, leaving a company open to receiving financial penalties if data is kept beyond the specified retention period. Software that supports BLM and is integrated with archival software ensures that all copies of data are deleted.

“Backup data has its own unique lifecycle and it needs to be managed effectively to maximise IT resources,” said Joseph Martins, Managing Director of Data Mobility Group. “Backup lifecycle management is a critical part of the overall management of enterprise data. The cost advantages of tiered storage are well understood outside the backup arena. Similarly, not all backup data is equal and needs to be placed on the appropriate device at specific points in its lifecycle. Treating all backup data the same is a simple solution, but it can be a very costly mistake. Asigra leads the technology curve for Backup Lifecycle Management.”

The paper goes on to explain how Asigra, which coined the term ‘BLM’, provides a particularly effective ILM-aware solution because it incorporates all office locations and remote workers into a centralized system, rather than having isolated unmanaged pockets of company data that would result in financial penalties should data that resides here be requested by a government body and not be retrievable. The paper also details how Asigra Televaulting reduces costs by de-duplicating the data and archiving non-critical data to less expensive storage systems. Furthermore, the method it uses to move the data to different storage systems makes it easy for clients to pre-schedule data for disposal and to pinpoint and retrieve data months or even years later, as and when requested by government agencies, thereby complying with data retention regulations. This ability to move backup versions to different devices also allows the user to refresh the technology. Software should have the ability to ‘read’ into older data and rewrite the data onto newer media after several years, so that aging outdated hardware doesn’t need to be kept in case old data needs to be retrieved at a later date.

“By extending ILM functionality into the backup arena, Asigra is addressing a gap in conventional ILM solutions that do a good job of managing active primary data, but largely ignore backup archives,” said Eran Farajun, executive vice president of Asigra. “Effective management of backup and archival data files is equally critical when it comes to controlling the cost of enterprise storage, ensuring fast and simple recovery of backup files and meeting the legal requirements of compliance data. The addition of Asigra BLM into Televaulting for Enterprises backup software addresses these customer needs with a solution that addresses the missing piece of data lifecycle management.”

About Asigra
Asigra is the award-winning leader in remote office/branch office (ROBO) online backup and recovery software for enterprises and managed backup service providers. The company’s flagship product, Televaulting, is used by global enterprises in the financial, insurance, legal, government, healthcare, and retail industries with more than four petabytes of data protected. Asigra technology is used by hundreds of service providers worldwide that offer managed backup services to companies ranging from small and medium businesses (SMBs) to Global 2000 enterprises. The agentless remote site backup and recovery solution provides simple, centralized management of the data protection process while eliminating the capital and operational expenses associated with agent-based solutions. Founded in 1986, Asigra is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with partner offices around the world. For more information, visit www.asigra.com.

About Data Mobility Group
Data Mobility Group is a storage industry research firm, dedicated to helping users, vendors, and investors sort out the issues that go along with developing and adopting information management technology. Data Mobility Group identifies challenges and opportunities while working with clients to evaluate, validate, and refine business and technology plans. Based in the US, further information can be found at www.datamobilitygroup.com.